The BBC ran an “article”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6355593.stm four days ago about an upcoming conference to be held in Japan aimed at overturning the global ban on commercial whaling. Since the ban, which went into effect in 1982, Japan and other countries have continued whaling under the auspices of scientific research. Environmental groups have been trying to close this loop hole of “scientific” whaling, pointing to the fact that whales captured for scientific purposes are sold on the same markets that used to sell commercially hunted whale. The practice of whaling was one of the first successful bans in the ecological movement and it’s hardly a wonder to anyone with a brain why it should be banned. These creatures tend to not have more than 1 calf every 2-3 years and it takes 15 years for a single humpback to reach maturity. Clearly this is one link in the food chain we can’t afford to lose.
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Since that article ran a Japanese whaling ship in the Ross Sea, the Nisshin Maru, caught fire and has refused the help of nearby Green Peace ships in towing it to port. “More on that”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6363741.stm
* Posted later on Duenos: “Harpooner”:http://duenos.net/article/362/Whalehuntingerrresearchinggame, a Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator.
Category Archives: Original Duenos
The Love Revolution starts with free hugs
Back at the University of Illinois there was a group that called themselves Positive Event Chain who, among other things, got together on the quad and gave away free hugs. I could never understand the people who would walk by the group without taking advantage of the offer. Who passes on a hug?
In the same vein I just heard of this group in Paris called calins gratuits (literally free hugs) who perform the same service here in the City of Love. According to their “website”:http://www.calins-gratuits.com/ they are part of a global revolution to ‘break the barriers of individualism and inhibition surrounding a simple friendly action.’
Iraq war predictions were a little off
The National Security Archives have just secured a pre-Iraq war slideshow by the US military given to civilian leaders detailing their projections on how Iraq would look 3, 12, 45 months after invasion. At this point in the conflict (we are just beginning the 47th month of the war) we are beyond their scope of prediction. The last prediction given in the slide show is 45 months at which point we should be completely disengaged with direct military action, with a possibility of 5,000 troops in the area just in case.
Surprise! Last month President Bush approved another troop increase of 20,000 troops which would bring the total number above 150,000.
Thanks to the “National Security Archives”:http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ for their work in securing the information. I”m just glad people still now what the Freedom of Information Act is. For more detail, check out the “New York Times article”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/washington/15military.html?ex=1329195600&en=ab52e1ac30c1c717&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss that led me to this interesting revelation.
Beautiful women doing good, a trend worth continuing
Maria Sharapova, the gorgeous and skilled young tennis stud(ette?) will be joining the ranks of UN goodwill ambassadors, focusing on the Chernobyl area. The Russian woman”s parents actually lived not far from the city and moved to Siberia when the nuclear reactor melted down. It was there that Sharapova was born in 1987. After signing up as an ambassador, she also donated $100,000 to relief efforts in the area.
Sharapova now joins actress Angelina Jolie as one of the UN”s very high profile goodwill ambassadors. As I said, I like this trend.
See “previous post”:http://duenos.net/article/5/for-the-mpaa-its-republicans-over-refugees about Angelina Jolie.
A different approach to greening the countryside in China
Officials in Fumin county, China have ordered Lao Shou mountain painted green. The offices of government officials apparently face the barren mountainside and villagers in the area are wondering if this highly-unorthodox “greening” of the environment might be an effort at improving the area”s feng shui.
I don”t have any pictures of the now green mountain to show but there is “this article”:http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/14/news/green.php . If you find anything out there on the internets, let us know.
More good music: Macadamia
Reminiscent of the Postal Service but more experimental, Macadamia is two British guys from England who ‘get together to make experimental music.’ They’ve released two albums so far and both are available for free download at their “website”:Eatmacadamia.com.
For more great free music, see my “previous post”:http://duenos.net/article/26/billie-the-vision-and-the-dancers. And about the site I found both bands, “Last.fm”:http://duenos.net/article/14/melodic-match-making-on-lastfm
Sweden to open a Second Life embassy
This is both exciting and puzzling. It’s exciting because I love the idea of the post-national communal space online that Second Life is meant to be, but I can’t help but be puzzled at its continued success as the interface is so blocky and well, ugly.
When I first about Second Life (probably through boingboing.net) I was one of the hundreds of thousands of people who went out and downloaded the software, installed it, and then made my first and only trip into Linden world. Snow Crash is one of my all-time favorite books, so the idea of a nascent metaverse really appealed to me but when I got there it seemed stunted, awkward, and slow. And that was on a T3 line!
I’d imagine that I would really like Second Life in a few years but for now I just can’t get into it, even though it may help me get into Sweden.
An article about the move can be found “here”:http://www.thelocal.se/6219/
Does Second Life make you all tingly inside? Maybe you should try getting a “first life”:http://www.getafirstlife.com/.
The easiest way to win a war is to say you've won
In a move straight out of George Bush”s playbook, Sony has declared the format war between HD-DVD and Sony”s BluRay. Apparently BluRay outsold HD-DVD 2 to 1 in January and are using the numbers to declare their platform to be the victor of this quick, Sumo-like clash of the titans. I didn”t actually think of this story, or the analogy, both come from the irreverent technology news site “the Inquirer”:http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37592 .
I still don't get records
Is it the indie/retro cred that makes owning LPs so cool? Because I don”t get it. For years I”ve been baffled at how otherwise-normal people can go ga-ga for old records. I”ve literally been in the presence of someone telling a story of how her grandfather had just died and in the telling, happened to mention that he had left a crate of old records. After the story ended another acquaintance of mine actually asked what the woman”s family was planning to do with the records. That”s how much people seem to care, and what”s the reason? I understand that a freshly-pressed LP would in theory have better audio quality than a CD or mp3, but for how long can that last? Surely not more than 5 diamond-needle dragging plays.
I”d forgotten how much I really didn”t understand the trend of records until I saw “this post”:http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/02/review_vpi_h165.html on “Wired.com”:http://www.wired.com/ about a $500 record cleaner sold by “VPI Industries”:http://www.vpiindustries.com/ . Is that really the price of indie cred AND good music?’, ‘
A new approach to climate change intervention
So it”s no secret, the average person doesn”t really care all that much about global warming. To many, the impending-doom ramifications of an unprecedented increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are overshadowed by the appeal of slightly milder winters and the idea of a deeper tan. Still, that was no hinderance to the intrepid people at CLIF-brand energy bars as they have started to market the global climate crisis to those who actually do give a shit, winter sports enthusiasts. The “S.O.S. (Save Our Snow) tour”:http://www.clifbar.com/sos/ is all about the getting the word out to skiers, snowboarders, and alpine enthusiasts on the devastating effects that global warming could have on their beloved hobbies. What a novel approach.